Automatic universal stereopticon



W. J. ASHLEY.

AUTOMATIC UNIVERSM. STEREOPTICON. APPLICATION FILED APR.1..1914.

1 ,3 1 3, 24 1 .A Patented Aug. 19, 1919.

4 SHEETS-SHEET l.

W. l. ASHLEY.

AUTOMATIC UNIVERSAL sTEREoPTICoN.

APPLICATION FILED APR-1| 1914. 41 3 1 3,24 l. I Patented Aug. 19, 1919.

' 4 SHEETS-SHEET 2. l 2. o FZ7 o 3@ FW- 5 lHll C@ l@ S .O

Ziff/752,?

W. l. ASHLEY. AUTOMATIC UNIVERSAL sTEREoPTlcoN.

APPLICATION FILED APR. l' 19N.

Patented Aug. 19,1919.

4 SHEETS-SHEETS.

lllil;

w.1. ASHLEY. AUTOMATIC UNIVERSAL STEREOPTICON.

APPUCATION FILED APR. l i914.

1 ,3 1 3, 24 1 Patented Aug. 19, 1919.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

WALTER'J. ASHLEY, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATIC UNIVERSAL STEREOPTICON.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug, 19, 1919,

Application filed April 1, 1914. Serial No. 828,652.

' To aZZ whom t mayicoincem:

Be it known that I, 'WALTER J. ASHLEY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented. certain new and useful Improvementsin Automatic Universal Stereopticons, of which the following is de- -ltclared to be a full, clearand exact descrip- .avoid abrupt changes between the successive exposures. Another object is' to provide a stereopticon, capable of universal usa'ge, that is to say, one which may be employed by lecturers for projecting pictures upon a screen or curtain, or which may be used to display advertisements or other subjects upon a screen, the changes of pictures or advertisements being made automatically and at regular intervals and without any attention on the part of the user of the machine. Other objects and advantages will appear in the course of this s ecificationand with all of these objects an advantages in view, this invention consists in the several novel features hereinafter fully set forth and more definitely pointed out in the claims.

The invention is clearly illustrated in the drawings furnished herewith in which Figure l is a side elevation of a stereopticon embodying the preferred form of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a front view thereof, with the motor omitted from the View; Fig. 3 is a vertical cross section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. l, with the slide carrying membersremoved from the view; Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken on line 4--4 of Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a detail face view-of the shutter mechanism of the upper apparatus, the lens tube and a certain shaft being shown in cross section, the line of section being taken at 5-5 in Fig. l; Fig. 6 is a detailsection taken on line 6 6 of Fig. ,5; Fig. 7 is a detail section taken on the line v7-7 of Fig. 5; Fig. 8 is a fragmental face view of the shutter seen in Fig. 5; Fig. 9 is the face view'of the shutter supporting arm seen in Fig. 5; Fig. 10 is a detail front view of fragments of the two slide carryingV members,

certain mechanism for actuating them and a fragment of the two lamps of the apparatus, certain shafts and lens supporting members being shown in cross section and the line of section being takenl at 10--10 in Fig. 1; Fig. 1l is a detail cross section takenon the line 11-11 of Fig. 10; Fig. 12 is a plan of a fragment of the lower slide carryinglmember and a certain crank arm which actuates the same, and Fig. 13 is a detail'section taken on the line 13-13 of Fig. 10.

Referring to said drawings, which illustrate a simple embodimentV of the invention,

ftwo substantially similar Vprojecting apparatuses, will be seen, the one being mounted' upon the other and both'arrangedto throw or project the objects or views on the slide upon a screen orcurtain supported in front of the stereopticon at a suitable distance therefrom. Each projecting apparatus is complete by itself, but both are connected together in such manner that while one is projecting a picture upon the screen the other one is bringing into active position a dif ferent slide and vice versa. The lower projecting apparatus A, is supported upon legs a, secured upon a kbase al, and the upper projecting apparatus B, is adjustably supported upon the lower apparatus. Each projecting apparatus has a lamp, one lettered a2, and one b2, the two being hinged together at b1, and provided with a ,screw adjustment mechanism 5, at the4 rear, lwhereby the rear end of the upper apparatus B, may be tilted more or less for the purpose of focusing the pictures upon the screen.

Both projecting apparatuses have condenser lnses a3, b3, supported on/the front walls, and objective lenses a4, b4, carried by frames a5, b5, which are supported by the lamp casings of the apparatuses. The lenses may be of the ordinary and well known type of lenses used in stereopticons and need no particular description so far as this specification is concerned. Y The lens su por-ting frames a5 b5 have rods a b w 1ch are slidably mounted in tubular supports a", 57, secured to the lamp casings, as for instance by means of brackets as, 58, fastened to the sides thereof. Electric, calcium-or any other suitable source of light, well known to those skilled in the art, may be employed in the lamps for projecting the images'upon the screen. f

The slides are usually in the form 'of glass plates 20, which bear the views or advertisements that are to be projected lipon the screen, and said slides are arranged in two series, one series' for each apparatus, carried by slide carrying members C, D, here shown in the form of disks rotatably carried by the lam casings and having-actuating mechanism or intermittently and alternatively rotating them in step b step manner, whereby one series of slidbs may remain fstationary during lthe exposure period, while the other series is being moved to blivivig a subsequent slide into active position. v en disks are employed as the means for carrying the slides, a series of exposure openings 21, arerovided in each slide carrying member C, D, said ope being circumferentially around the disks, the axes of rot tation of said disks bein'g so arranged with ect to the lenses that the openings in the dis may be brought successively into registerwith the'associated lenses. Conveniently, the slides 20, rest v against shoulders or flanges 22, formed at the openings 21, and they may be held in place by spring buttons 23, pivotally secured to the disks and arranged tobear against the slides near their side edges, as clearly indicated in Figs. -10 and l1., The vdisks C, D, are rotatably v vmounted upon shafts 24, 25, carried by .the

brackets .26, 27, at one end, and by brackets 28, 29, at the other end, the last named brackets being secured to the front walls of the lamp casings a2, b2; the brackets 26, 27, are secured to the forward' ends of the tubular Supporting members a", (see- Figs. 1 and 3). To permit' of the removal of the C, D, orto permit said -disks to be turned around u n their supporting shafts, the latter are s 'tably mounted in their supports, and coiled compression springs 30 are interposed .between the front wa s ot the lamp lars are fast on the shafts and bear against the hubs of the disks, the tension of the springs being exerted to hold the shafts in sprocket wheels 34, fastened on-the shafgs 32, 33, and a sprocket chain 35, trained over said sprocket wheels. Take-up mechanism is provided for the sprocket chain, 35, so that the upper lamphouse and 'parts carried thereby may be tilted to focus the upper instrument upon the screen, and said' take-up mechanism 35a` is lhere shown as comprising casings and collars 31, which colgs in the brackets 26, 27. To re- :temeer an arm, 35, pivotally supported on the bracket, 27, and ea ing a roller which bears against the sprorket chain, 35, the arm being springpressed toward the chain so as to take up any slack-therein when the lamphouse is tilted thereby bringing the sprocket Wheels 34, closer together. Crank arms 36, 37, are secured to the ends of the shafts 32, 33, adjacent to the disks, and slaid crank arms are arranged to engage wit pins 38, 39, secured to the disks C, D, there being one pin for .each slide, (see Fig. 10) to move said disks in their step by step movement. In the form of mechanism here shown, the crank arms move said disks ,fonly Vthrough a part of the distance traveled by them and additional means are provided for completing the movement; this comprises arms 40, 41, pivotally mounted upon the tubular supports a", b", and having rollers 42, that ride upon the edge portions of the disks, which are notched to provide V shaped portions press the rollers 42, against the V shaped edge portions on the peripheries of the disks. The result is that each crank arm moves its disk from a position in which the roller presses against'the base of the notch between the V shaped portions, to a position where it reaches the point or just beyond the point thereof, force the roller down the inclined portion, causing the disk to complete its movement, and bringing the next slide into locked position in register with the lens. The two crank arms are so timed with respect tov each other that either disk may' remain stationary throughout its exposure periods, during a ortion of which periods the other disk is ing moved to change the position of its slides. l f

The shutter mechanisms for the lenses may 4conveniently comprise disk like shutters 46, 47, (see Figs. 2 and 5) each pivotally supported upon an arm or bracket 48, secured to the lens tube, associated therewith, by a clamp- 49, fastened upon the tube. A cam block 50, is non-rotatively mounted upon each shaft 32, 33, which block has a cam groove, in which travels a pin 51, upon t-he arm 52, of the shutter disk 46-47, and said groove is shaped and arranged to move said pin through anarch of such extent-as to swing the shutter disk from a position covering the lens to one entirely beyond the same, and vice versa. tudinal adjustment of lens and its frame, ably mounted on its seated in a keyway whereupon the spring 45' acts toconvenience each cam block has a hub 54,

" mechanisms which actuate the slide carry extending on one side thereof, which projects through one end of the arm or bracket 48, andaJ ring 55,'is secured thereon hold the cam and `arm together. Convemently the arm 52, of the shutter disk is pivotally connected tothe arm or bracket 48, by means 'of a headed pin 56, seated in a sleeve'57, se-

cured to the arm orbracket 48. The shutter mechanisms are so timed with respect to the disks, that during the movement of eac v lens, in coming toits closed disk, its associated slnitter remains closed and the opposite-'shutter remains open. 'The two shutters are so timed' 'withmespect to each other as tof have one pass across its osition, while the other one asses across tle lens toward its open position, the' resultbein that the image projected from the sllde o one disk gradually dissolves into the image projected v from the slide of the other disk. A

The slide carrying disks and shutter actuating mechanism may b e driven by Ia motor E, speed reducing gearing belng lnterposed between it and one of the shafts which drive the said mechanisms. Conveniently a worm pinion 60, upon the motor shaft and meshing'with a worm gear 61, on a shaft 62, seated in the bracket 26 and a bracket 63, a small.

sprocket wheel 64, carried by the worm gear 61, a large sprocket wheel 65, fast on the shaft 32, and a sprocket chain 66, trained over said sprocket wheels may comprisea simple form of speedreducing gearing between the motor and'driven mechanism.

In the use of the apparatus it is placed in front of the screen or curtain, or behind' the same if a transparent one is used-for instance, where it is gdesired to project the images on a transparent screen to be viewed from the outside of a building. For this reason thepins'38, 39, project from both n slides in the disks.l

sides of the disks, so that the latter may be reversed in the apparatus, thereby avoiding the necessity o f reversing the individual The-motor having .been set in motion the operation of the apparatus is as follows Both shafts 32, 33, are slowly rotated in the direction of thev arrows- (see Figs. 2l and 10) and therewith the -crank arms vand vcam blocks. While one shutter is open, for instance the upper one, the lower one is closed,`

fdown into the notch between two V portions completing the movement of the diskv to bring the succeeding slide into register, with the lower lenses, and locking it in such pcftlon, thereby holding it perfectly stationary durlng its exposure eriod. The cont1nued rotation of the sha ts 32, 33, and cam blocks simultaneously 'close the upper shutter and open the lower one, thereby causing the image fromthe upper slide to dissolve or merge into the image.from the lower slide, after whichy the upper crank arm acts on the` upper disk and. so on. l The adjustment screw at the rear of the apparatus, and slidable vconnection between Lthe objective lenses with the lamps a'ord means for properly focusing the apparatus. More or lessvarlation of the exact details of construction is possible without departing from. this invention. Other equivalent forms of slide carrying members may be employed, as, for instance, endless chains may be substituted for the disks for carrying the slides and many otherl modications are possible. I desire, therefore, not to limit myself 'to the particular form of mechanism illustrated and described, but intend in the following claims to point out all of the invention disclosed-v herein.

I claim as new and.I desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. In a stereopticon, two units comprising two lamps, lenses therefor, two rotatory slide carrying disks, one for each lamp, said disks having circumferentially arranged exposure 100.

openings, arranged to be brought successively into register with said lenses and having pins,1on`e for each opening, supports for said disks, two shafts, one for each disk, a crank arm carried by each shaft and arranged to engage said pins, and therewith partially rotate the' disks, each crank arm being timed to act on 4its'disk while the other disk is at rest, one of said'units b'eing'pivotally connected to the other, means for varyv ing the angular relation between said units and means for slowly rotating said shafts in unison, including gearing between said shafts having ltake-up means therein.

2. In a stereopticon, the combination of l two units, eachcomprising a lampcasing, `lens supporting'means carried thereby, a disk supporting bracket carried by said lens. supporting means, a slide carrying disk journaled on said bracket, a disk actuating l shaft journaled in said lens supporting means and'bracket, a disk actuatmg armmounted on' said shaft, and shutter mechanism operatively connected to said shaft; sprocketV wheels on said shafts, a sprocket chaintrained over said sprocket wheels, and motor driven gearing for one of said shafts; said units being timed to display views alternately.

3. In a stereopticon, the combination of two 'ts, each comprising a lamp casing,

carrier? by said frame, a disk supporting bracket secured to said tubular lens support, a

slide carrying disk j ournaled on said bracket a disk actuating shaft, journaled in said bracket and lens carrying frame, a disk actuating arm on said shaft, and shutter mechanism o eratively connected with said shaft,

and adJustable with respect thereto; both A miami disk actuatinshafts being geared together to rotate in t e same direction, and motor driven gearin for one of saidy shafts, the arms on said s afts' acting to move the disks alternately to bring the slides thereof alternately into register with the lenses. v

In witness whereof I have executed the above at Chicago, Illinois, this 28 ,day ofV March, 1914.

, WALTER J. ASHLEY.

ISC CHARIs OEmvnr@ 

